BEEFWOOD Farms, Moree, is pursuing a path of innovation and technology uptake by purchasing new sprayer technology it believes will be a game-changer fighting weeds and reducing its overall chemical inputs.

An on-board computer recognises weeds from real-time images of the crops and targets individual plants with herbicide application via the sprayer.

Beefwood Farms’ manager Glenn Coughran said the need to increase capacity for spot spraying and weed detection across Beefwood’s 11,000 hectares spurred investment in the new technology.

“We'd used the two brands that had been available in Australia, the WeedSeeker and then the WEEDit, but they're sort of limited to 24 and 36-metre configurations.

“In our farming system we were limited to 24m because our configurations are 12m headers, 24m planters, and 48m spray rigs; 36m doesn't work for us.

“So we wanted to increase our capacity, preferably in one machine rather than two or three machines.”

The Agrifac Endurance sprayer covers 48m and Mr Coughran said if it's as good as it's designed to be, it will have much better detection abilities.

“The main goal is we would expect to be able to detect a green weed in a green crop.”

This end goal is all part of Beefwood’s integrated weed management strategy and Mr Coughran said one of the major benefits of this machine is its contribution to Beefwood’s herbicide resistance plan.

“The plan is to be able to go in and use robust rates on those herbicide resistant weeds,” he said.

“Because of its capacity and its width we'll be looking to run our weed detection machines a lot more than we have in the past.

“We need more capacity because we're going to be out there more often, so we've either got to go wider to stay efficient or we've got to go autonomous.”

Mr Coughran said instead of sending a blanket sprayer out into the field after every rain event, the plant-recognising technology would allow for a targeted approach and ultimately save a substantial amount on chemical.

Beefwood Farms' manager Glenn Coughran and Agrifac product specialist James Smart with one of the weed-detecting cameras on the Agrifac Endurance spray unit.

With the aim of being as efficient as possible in everything they do, Mr Coughran said the decision to invest in such technology came down to one thing.

“We couldn’t afford to not invest in the technology.”

Beefwood’s Agrifac Endurance sprayer will operate at the Tulloona Field Day on Thursday, March 15.

Autonomous tractors proving economical

The use of innovative technology is nothing new for Beefwood Farms, which has been running autonomous tractors for several years.